Hooray for dancin!

This past weekend was filled with lots of dancing and it was ah-MAZ-ing! I got to play around in some classes. Then Zohar School of Dance held a free dance concert for the community to not only encourage and promote dance but to celebrate the love of the Art. There were students from the elementary schools that Zohar works with that were featured as well as a few routines from some of the students of the school.

Not only was there the dance concert at Zohar, we were invited to Western Ballet to perform a few numbers for their concert too! Not bad for a Saturday. It was so much fun to be surrounded by dancers. To see them stretching and performing a variety of genres, was like sort of stepping into the life that I dream of once upon a time.

Then on Sunday, for the sjDANCEco event in Santana Row, we got to shake a leg up on that stage too! While it wasn’t my favorite performance of the weekend, it was still fun to be in the mix with ballerinas and ballroom dancers and to sidestep behind a couple of belly dancers before heading back to work. It’s like what I wish the world were like. So many different acts, but all with one common goal: to share the love of dance. Of course were this to apply to reality, it would be to share the love of humanity. But that’s a whole other tangent.

I have always been a big believer of constantly keeping up with classes for your craft. If you can’t take a class, read books, watch performances, or research it on the web. But do something! Also, I am the first person to say that I am not a dancer. I can move and do it well, but I always feel like I lack the technique required to be a great dancer or to be called a dancer. So I have been working with Daynee Lai-Krauss and Ehud Krauss the founders of Zohar to be the best dancer that I can be. I love that the classes are always fun but challenging. And the other students are so laid back and mellow and fun!

Now, while I’ve been known to shy away from religion, I can’t think of a better word to call Daynee and Ehud, but angels. In the few months that I have been working with them, I have not only found a great studio that I am comfortable in, but they are a constant source of knowledge and support. And it’s not just them. All the teachers that I’ve taken classes from have been to great. I feel like I could be a dancer one day. Maybe sooner than I expected. :-)! With my mindset that I want to be good at everything, I still get frustrated when I don’t understand something very quickly, like a combination that quickly switches direction. But the important thing, as I was telling one of the new people in the class, is that with every thing that you really love to do, especially if it’s a challenge, is to keep on trying. Sometimes, when I get frustrated, I leave it alone and come back to it. That’s all fine and good if it’s knitting or a paper you have to write. But in a dance class, you have not only your teacher, but fellow students who will be happy to break down the steps for you. Your job is to be calm and open enough to accept the help and guidance. I used to have a problem with that, but it’s not as bad now.

Tonight’s class was especially needed after a trying day at the nursery. The combinations across the floor were a little trickier that usual, but it was the most amazing release of tension and stress once I got into the zone. So the moral of the story, kids, is once you find your passion, whatever it may be, make an effort to constantly stay in touch with it. It will be a great source of happiness when the rest of the world is making you weary.

P.S. Zohar is being honored with the Unity in Diversity Award because of their IndepenDANCE programs. The party is being held at 70 W. Hedding St. in San Jose from 10-2:30 on May 1. Congrats to Zohar and Daynee and Ehud! It’s a well deserved award.